Greens give Obama wilting enthusiasm

Environmentalists are furious at President Barack Obama — he failed on cap and trade, his energy message has turned into the more GOP-friendly “all of the above” and he’s all but done talking about global warming.

But he’s racking up the endorsements anyway.

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This is life for Democratic-aligned interest groups in the 2012 presidential campaign — Obama’s term has been full of disappointments, but it’s a tight election and there’s fear of just how opposed to their agendas Mitt Romney would be. So the message is simple: Shut up and fall in line.

The latest gripe comes via the administration’s approach to the Earth Summit that starts Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is going, but with 130 countries sending their presidents and prime ministers, greens see her presence as the perfect metaphor of Obama’s interest and commitment falling short.

And it’s a fresh reminder of just how little they’ve got to show for the first 3½ years of the Obama presidency — other leaders are coming with plans and records but Clinton is coming with promises and talk.

Obama aides insist the United States is making strides as the biggest development donor in the world. Obama’s decision not to go to Rio, they add, shouldn’t be seen as a snub.

“Look, I am not able to speak to the president’s schedule, but we are coming at a level which is quite comparable to a great many other countries,” Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate envoy, told reporters last week.

All that history explains Obama’s less-than-gushing endorsements from the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Environment America and Clean Water Action.

“Elections are about choices, and this choice was clear and simple both because President Obama understands why we need to take action and just as important, a President Romney would be the first climate denier president in our nation’s history,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski.

Karpinski pointed to upcoming Environmental Protection Agency moves to finalize standards for new power plants and fuel economy, identifying them as key accomplishments of Obama’s global warming agenda. “Those are the real decisions that cut carbon pollution,” he said.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said his group “is proud to endorse President Obama” and would “work hard to give the president a mandate to continue to protect our air and water and accelerate the transition to clean energy in a second term.”

“We see stark differences between Romney and the president on climate and nearly every environmental issue, and we hope the president will accentuate those differences as the campaign progresses,” Brune added.

As governor, Romney initially backed cap-and-trade policies, but he declared during the GOP primary campaign: “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet.” If elected, Romney has promised to push legislation that would overturn the Supreme Court’s landmark 2007 decision allowing the EPA to advance climate regulations.

While greens don’t want to return to the defensive posture they were perpetually in during the Bush administration, they are also left to wonder what they could expect in a second Obama term. Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline — arguably their biggest victory in recent months — only came after an all-out lobbying campaign that included hundreds of arrests outside the White House.